


Safe and Sound

by clevelandkiwi



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst-ish?, F/M, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Possible Spoilers, Post-Canon, idk - Freeform, if you really care wait til you've seen TFA to read, so far - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 15:06:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5544521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clevelandkiwi/pseuds/clevelandkiwi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He stills gets nightmares, she's still there to remind him they're over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe and Sound

**Author's Note:**

> Unbetaed, any mistakes are mine, set about 5 years after TFA, and post redemption!arc (I can dream). Title taken from Taylor Swift's "Safe and Sound"

Ben Solo wakes up shaking, cold sweat clinging to his neck and drenching the curls at his temples. Kylo Ren has been gone for years now, and yet he still feels the creak of the bridge under his boots, his father’s hand on his face, still hears the anguished howl of the Wookie he had laughed with as a child. He feels the lump forming in his throat, feels the air leaving his lungs, feels the fear and panic he’s fought every night since then. He had tried to keep going, to stay angry, but the impact of the things he had done as Kylo Ren had kept pushing him back to the light. He had come back to the Resistance broken and shaking. For so long all he felt was despair and loss. Now through the haze of the nightmares he feels something else. Arms, _her_ arms, wrapping around his waist, stroking his drenched face.

“I’m here, Ben. I’m here,” Rey’s voice is gentle in his ear. They’ve been through this moment so many times before, but it never gets easier. “I know. It’s alright. It’s over. Shh, I’m here. I’ve got you.” 

He breaks in her embrace, ragged sobs shaking his slender frame. He can feel the pain he’s caused, and even though no one else does, he blames himself. “Father,” he chokes out, his fist balling in the cloth of Rey’s robe.

Rey stays there cradling him, even after he falls back asleep, drained and exhausted, nowhere near restful. She notes that these episodes are growing shorter, and there’s less screaming. She’s tired, but she won’t leave him unprotected, won’t leave him by himself to face his past alone. He had hurt her, hurt those she loved, but that included himself now. She knows that only he can heal the damage he has inflicted to himself and everyone else, but she also knows he won't be able to do it alone. She knows he isn’t gone; he's merely lost, wandering, slowly making his way back home, learning to forgive himself, like an infant learning to walk. So she stays and waits. She always waits for him. Her Ben. When he wakes up in the morning, eyes red and face drawn, she’ll be there, the one thing in the maelstrom of his mind that is calm, focused, and unchanging. His lighthouse, his anchor, his Rey.


End file.
